Yet Again, Republicans Hate Obamacare But Love What It Actually Does

I dunno, folks. As John Kelly says, we’re in Crazytown. Here’s the latest Kaiser tracking poll asking people about the importance of protecting health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions:

A full 90 percent want to keep the Obamacare provision that protects those with pre-existing conditions. 90 percent! You can barely get a number that high for approval of a congressional Mother’s Day resolution. And yet, the approval rate of Obamacare itself remains….meh:

Among Republicans, 58 percent think it’s important to retain Obamacare protections for pre-existing conditions. However, only 15 percent have a favorable view of the law that provides those protections in the first place. This makes no sense. One way or another, it means that at least 43 percent of Republicans want to get rid of Obamacare but keep Obamacare’s protections for pre-existing conditions.

Just the other day I had cause to wonder why so many conservatives seem to be perfectly happy with being wildly misinformed. This isn’t to say that plenty of liberals aren’t misinformed about various topics too. We don’t live in Plato’s Republic, after all. But conservatives practically seem to revel in it. They are lied to in the most obvious and egregious ways, and not only is that fine, they actually seem to like it. And it’s not because they don’t know. Sure, some of them are just ignorant, but I will swear on a stack of Bibles that an awful lot of the ones I talk to actually have a pretty good idea that they’re being deliberately misled and they’re OK with it. In fact, they prefer it that way. It keeps life simple, and they value a simple life above almost anything.

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We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

Not here. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re not part of any cult that demands our allegiance to a bottom line. We’ve spoken up and spoken out while other newsrooms changed their stories—or cut them altogether—to keep the C suite happy.

Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

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